Peter Butler Archives - North West End UK

4Jun

By Aditi DalalNo Comments

London

In Praise of Love – Orange Tree Theatre

There’s something truly magnetic about a play that holds you at the edge of your seat, slowly pulling you deeper into its world with every passing moment. In Praise of Love does just that, creating a charged atmosphere where tension builds quietly, but persistently, in the midst of seemingly everyday exchanges. A beautiful balance of humour and heartbreak, this play keeps you engaged from start to finish, delivering its emotional punches with grace. Set in 1970s England, In Praise of Love follows Lydia, an Estonian refugee, and her husband Sebastian, a sharp-tongued literary critic, as they each try to protect the other with carefully kept secrets. Written by Terence Rattigan, the play brings to life four sharply drawn characters, each carrying their own secrets, loyalties, and regrets....

Abigail’s Party – Royal Exchange

Most of the packed press night audience will have arrived in the Victorian splendour of the Royal Exchange thinking they had a firm idea of what to expect from their evening’s entertainment. This suburban satire is firmly fixed in the collective theatrical imagination, chiefly thanks to the 1977 televised ‘Play For Today’, which confirmed Mike Leigh as a theatrical auteur and launched the stellar acting career of (his then wife) Alison Steadman. However, with this new production, the Royal Exchange has succeeded in demonstrating the bitter and caustic underbelly of this ‘puckish satire on contemporary mores’ without losing the humour at its heart. Director Natalie Abrahami decides to transpose the action in place but not in time, so we are presented with our Richmond Road setting in sub...

A Taste of Honey – Royal Exchange Theatre

In 1958, a 19-year-old Salford girl called Shelagh Delaney went to watch 'Variation on a Theme' by Terence Rattigan at Manchester’s Opera House. Incensed at the portrayal of homosexual relationships in the play, she came out of the theatre thinking she could do something far better, inside two weeks she had written 'A Taste of Honey'. This raw and powerful story of poverty, race and sexuality quickly became a crucial part of the 'British New Wave’ and later supplied Morrissey with half the lyrics on the debut Smiths album. The beating heart of this play is the relationship between Helen (Jill Halfpenny) and her teenage daughter Jo (Rowan Robinson), they are first seen arriving in squalid lodgings in a Salford backstreet with little money and even less hope. Helen is described by Dela...